Movie critic is all ears and proud of her role

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Last year the film critic Margaret Pomeranz received an envelope
from the Governor-General's office asking her for a reference for
another citizen nominated for an appointment to the Order of
Australia. So when Ms Pomeranz received a second, identical
envelope a month later, she assumed it was a follow-up.

"When I opened it up, I was so overwhelmed," she said.

The enclosed letter said Ms Pomeranz had been appointed as a
Member (AM) of the Order of Australia.

"This is a very serious award," she said. "To be recognised for
supporting arts in this country is a lovely thing. It says that art
and culture are important in our lives."

The critic and anti-censorship champion, famous for her
passionate opinions and dangly earrings, grew up in Sydney,
attended Presbyterian Ladies College in Croydon and studied
economics at the University of Sydney before switching to an arts
degree at Macquarie University.

After working in Vienna, Ms Pomeranz worked in film and
television. She was a part-time producer for SBS when she met the
film critic and historian David Stratton, with whom she now hosts
At the Movies on the ABC.

A former president of the Film Critics Circle, she is famous for
campaigning against film censorship. In mid-2003 she started the
DVD at an illegal screening of banned film Ken Park at
Balmain Town Hall before police stopped it.

Ms Pomeranz, who loves being Australian, is a passionate
advocate for the freedom of expression in film.

"I grew up when this place was a very narrow country," she said.
"Who wants to go back to that? I'd like us to be more civilised,
more generous, more cultured. More human."

When the production designer and pop artist Brian Thomson heard
that Ms Pomeranz was also being appointed to the Order of
Australia, as a new AM appointee he offered Ms Pomeranz his pin so
she could wear the pair as earrings on At the Movies.

Mr Thomson is Australia's foremost set designer for theatre,
film and opera, and has worked on productions including The
Rocky Horror Picture Show, and more recently Three
Furies for the Sydney Festival and Dame Edna: Back with a
Vengeance for Broadway.

Mr Thomson won a Tony Award in 1996 for his Thai-temple set for
the Broadway, London and Australian productions of The King and
I.

Mr Thomson, who as a child frequented building sites and
sketched what he saw, completed most of an architecture degree
before joining the theatre.

"I couldn't stand the compromises," Mr Thomson said of
architecture. "I told my parents I was leaving the course because I
didn't believe in it any more. I did say that one day they would be
proud of me."

Neither of Mr Thomson's parents is alive, but he said his
appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia would have made
them proud. "I would love them to be here - not that they'd have a
clue what my job was about, but they'd cut out the articles in the
paper. This award would be a fantastic thing for them," he
said.